Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts

Project DFD: Definitely not Dead

Last September I teased what was originally going to be my second game, Project DFD. It’s been a while, but it’s definitely not dead. Here’s what DFD was a year ago:

DFDthen

And here’s a pic from a recent build:

DFDnow

More pics are posted here.

Needless to say, balancing my debut foray into strategy games (perhaps my favorite genre) has taken a great deal more time than originally predicted. Additionally, DFD has become quite the pet project to widen my skill set. All of the game’s models, art, music, and sound have been produced right here on the GUO homestead.

So what the heck is Project DFD? Well, it is my attempt to reinvent the single-player real-time strategy game. ‘Dying for Dollars:The Pyramid Conspiracy’ casts the player as the newest financial officer for the shadowy Pyramid organization. As such, you’ll be in charge of manipulating armed conflicts into bloody quagmires in order to sell supplies to both sides.

While not in control of either army, the player’s task is to sponsor construction of military production facilities and leverage deceptive tricks via the WiSuR (Wide-area Surveillance and Recon) system to achieve this goal. Of course, such brazen manipulation is not without its risks. The player must be careful to not only manage their limited resources in a dynamic warzone, but also weigh the consequences of their action to prevent their schemes from being discovered by either side. What results is a familiar looking yet altogether different take on the RTS genre, just as you’d expect from the GrandPop Games series.

While the core game of DFD is nearly balanced and feature complete, there is still a good deal of menu and tutorial fluff to be finished. I’d also like to get a couple more maps built. While it is unlikely that DFD will be completed this year, I thought you might enjoy this little peak at what’s been on my digital workbench.

A Hot Cup of JoCo for Christmas

As is tradition here at Growing Up Otaku, we turn to the Internet’s favorite troubadour, Jonathan Coulton, as he checks in with the residents of Chiron Beta Prime.

From all of us at GUO to you, Happy Holidays! We love you!

Remember, it could always be worse Winking smile

Happy Thanksgiving

From our humble little household to yours: Happy Thanksgiving!

…and Now a Word from Our Sponsors

money smileWell, not “from”. More “about”. Not really “sponsors” either. Sponsors are active supporters. So… “advertisers”. Anywho, all that just didn’t have the same ring. What was I saying? Ah!

We have added two more affiliates to GUO: Newegg and iTunes. Not bad, eh?
As with the Amazon deal, we shall not be changing anything regarding the way we run the show. We don’t have to. Heck, Apple didn’t even call us on the end of the Guard the Earth review (shh, don’t tell ‘em). We’re picking affiliates based on the links we’ve always run. How many Newegg deals have we already done? A quick search shows 8 and doesn’t count the expired ones I remembered to delete. Ditto on the iOS sales (which I have mercifully taken a break from in the past month. Those list of links are death to create). I’ve also been trying to submit an App review every week, each one featuring a link to the App Store for convenience. It just makes sense to try to skim 4 cents off of Apple.

Also, as before, I have added some links to the sidebar for these wonderful folks who are letting us sponge off of their profits. I’m still fiddling with ‘em, but the goal is to keep it discrete and unobtrusive. That’s why they’re in the sidebar. Everyone has always said they ignore it. Why put them there at all? Just as a little reminder that you can leave us a tip as you go about your usual online shopping. Clicking through puts a cookie in your browser history that lasts for 3 days and let’s us suckle at the teat of Big Business for a couple of coins to do Cool Bloggy Projects. Plus the iTunes Top App links are cool!

How that for transparency? Corporate’s gonna stop letting me speak in public at this rate.

That being said, the economy can only get better at this point, so treat yourself to an ipad, pick up a spiffy case, and load it full of the best software known to fruit! Together we’ll put Ask Grandpop where it was always meant to be: IMAX 3D!

PS. It was so not worth building those links for that joke…

Fancy Designing Our New Blog Banner?

I’ve been thinking about a new blog banner for a while now. I’d like a character that is unique to Growing Up Otaku. After several tries I’ve only confirmed what I already knew: Me not so good wif artsy things. Crowdsourcing to the rescue?

The Pride of Growing Up Otaku

2011-10-03 Chloe Hicks“Look Pop-Pop! Podcast!”

Fresh off the nightly scramble to clean up the Dinner Disaster Area before bath time, I wiped my hands dry on my pants and cocked an eyebrow at BG where she sat on the Mrs.’ lap. The glow of a laptop illuminated their faces in the fading sunset. Both girls were all smiles and nodding at me. Wiping a wayward cluster of soap bubbles from my hair I cooked up an appropriately witty rejoinder.

“HuWha?”

“Podcast, Pop-Pop!”

Now, it’s not that Chloe doesn’t know what a podcast is. On the contrary, she has indulged me in several episodes of baby safe fare such as Buzz Out Loud or Wired’s Gadget Lab over the years. I couldn’t imagine either of the girls seeking out such entertainment during what is traditionally a time reserved for Elmo on YouTube. I also had never heard her say the word podcast before.

Intrigued I crept closer and looked over the giggling girls heads. Sure enough, Sesame Street has a podcast.

Attention Facebookers: Relax! You Are Not That Important or Interesting

A couple times in casual conversation I found myself comparing Facebook users to the AOL users of yore. I could not have been more wrong. In fact, Facebookers are the polar opposite of AOL members. Most America OnLine users were born on AOL. It was their ISP as well as their online experience. The stayed in that walled off garden blissfully playing on the grass out of ignorance. They had no knowledge of the World Wide Wonders that lay outside their door. Users of Facebook, on the other hand, looked upon the wonders of the World Wide Web and decided they did not want it. It was vast. It was varied. It took effort. They voluntarily walked into the garden, closed the door, and stared vainly at a picture of themselves on a Wall where their Friends would bring them the news of the world.

DCF Rant #213

Click through the jump to subject yourself to my latest batch of Baby Mama Drama whining.

A Brief Word on the Star Wars Blu-Rays

IF YOU KEEP BUYING, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO DO THIS!

BG’s Joke of the Week

Squirrel

“Look Pop-Pop!”

“Oh, yeah. That’s a squirrel.”

“I’m gonna eat it!”

“Wha? No, we don’t eat squirrels.”

“Hahaha! I’m funny!”

“Yes, you are sweetie.”

Death, Insanity, and OnLive’s Technical Support

Remember when I told you about GeekDads? Remember that OnLive console I showed you? Good. Now that we’re up to speed: My OnLive Micro Console died. This is that story. And then some.

IMG_0898I plugged the little guy in on a Friday morning following the procurement of a new game compliments of OnLive’s $5 Fridays sale. Hmm. No lights, no video, no sound, not a single luxury. Lemme double check that power cord. Yep, put it in the audio jack. Oops! Well, that should fix it! Super tech to the res- hmm. Still dead. This thing’s got a button. Lemme push that… Hold that... Hmm. There are buttons on the controller. Maybe those? Nope. How ‘bout if I press the controller button AND the console button at the same time? Hold both? Nothing.

Hurricane Irene Hits New Jersey. Rahway Floods. Updated 8-29

hurricaneJust got word from my family up in Jersey. Power is out in their part of Rahway and they are not expecting it back on for a couple of days. The streets are also flooded as you can see in this pic my sister got out just before the power died. Her last Facebook post kinda spells out what the picture hints at:

“NJ is just not good for hurricanes! I've seen more flooding with this small Cat 1 hurricane than I've seen with a 2 in Florida!”

When I spoke with them last night they were spinning yarns about folks at the grocery store stocking up on meat and milk rather than non-perishable hurricane supplies.

The hearts and thoughts of all of us here at GUO go out to everyone affected by Irene. Being Florida residents, we’re very aware of how much of a mess even a small storm can cause. Remember to REST. Storms like these can create a lot of work and even more stress. Trying to carry on while exhausted will just lead to sloppy work, potential injury, and a short fuse. Don’t over do it.

Growing Up Otaku Whole Heartedly Endorses This GeekDad Rant

GeekDad James Floyd Kelly took his first trip to the Mecca of pompous douchebags known as Apple Store. Guess what? It didn’t go very well. While the full article is certainly worth a read, it is the quote below that demands repeating:

“I’m writing this because I want companies (not just Apple) to realize that when geek dads decide to make a significant purchase, they’ve likely got the cash and done their homework. GeekDads are likely some of the best customers you’ll ever have — we tend to be vocal in our praise, loyal in our patronage, and generous with our sharing of our experiences with family, friends, and co-workers. But the flip side to that is this: When we’re not treated properly, we’re going to be vocal with our disappointment, likely to look for competitors who want our business, and we’ll tell everyone we know (via email, Facebook, face-to-face, and yes, even blogs) about it.”

Electronics retailers everywhere take notice: If you see someone in a Logitech t-shirt with bags under his eyes and a sippy cup in his pocket, you had better put your best foot forward.

…and the Ocedar scrubbing roll-away mop still sucks!

Celebrating One Year of Growing Up Otaku on YouTube

Wow! Has it been one year already? It seems like three. Why, oh why won’t the time fly? I’m getting too old to be living every minute to its fullest!

Believe it or not, I actually had a video posted before OnLive; Before Special Report; Before Baby Girl tucked in a marshmallow bunny with a hamburger bun; Before Ask Grandpop; Even before I threatened to sue you all; For two months there was a single, lonely gameplay video cleverly titled “Watch Me Beat Hazard My Big Red Rocket of Love”. Enjoy!

One year. 35 videos. Woo! Thanks for watching!

The Return of Baby-Boo

BG is finally back after an extra long, 5 day visit with her parents. Man, is she every color of the Sybil rainbow! I’ve also really got my work cut out for me getting her hair washed tonight. Looks like DCF has put off her next court date for an extra month, too. Egad. I love living on hold…

2011-08-03 17.01.54*edit* I had to share this pic of Chloe coming home. I thought I had seen everything BG was capable of, but this was new. Liz found her at school just staring at a bookcase. Usually she’s leading the class, singing and dancing.

She’s young. She’ll come to terms. Of course she wouldn’t need to if either the state or her parents had gotten their asses in gear and finished this 6 months ago.

I’m not young. I wont come to terms with it.

Growing Up Otaku Digest : July 2011

guoAvatarGUO Digest is a monthly look back at some of our great content as we endeavor to bring you news, reviews, deals, and commentary from all corners of the gloriously geeky kingdom known as Internet.

It’s time to set the Wayback Machine to July 1 and take a quick look at the month that was. I’m still trying to figure out the best format for this month long wrap-up, or if it’s even worth the effort. It’s a little tough to experiment with a column you write once a month. Have a thought on the matter? Let us know in the comments or via email.

Just back from a second round of pediatric visits. Pediatric's office is now using iPad 2s with capacitive pens. Cool stuff!

BG has bronchitis. Egad, I've written bronchitis so many times on this blog that I spell it right now!  You ever live with a toddler on steroids? Imagine if you had a Klingon with a tribble stuck up its ass as a roommate...

Fun Fact: Klingon is in Chrome's spell checker. LOL. Google nerds...

Domestic Domesticism

The Mrs. brought BG home early today. It seems BG popped a 102 degree temp at pre-school today. She's been hacking some since she came home from visitation. Of course, with an asthmatic baby, she's always hacking some. Her temp was fine this morning (we check A LOT), but I should have known something was up. She was far too agreeable ;) We spent darn near 3 hours driving to and fro this evening getting the baby inspected and medicated.

Tomorrow's gonna be quite an adventure! Gonna have to get the Mrs. back and forth for her blood treatment with a sick two year old riding shotgun. Then there's the gal's busted immune system to worry about all weekend. Ah, the unsung trials of being a domestic hero. Well... not unsung here. My domestic chaos is the very foundation of Growing Up Otaku, LOL.

Speaking of growing up geeky, BG has taken a shine to a beach towel and has been toting it with her whenever we go out. I'm pretty sure she knows something I don't. Something involving Vogons bulldozing Earth ;)

OMG! It’s So Beautiful!

Just had a big-ass thunderstorm (BATS) finish up here. Went outside for a smoke and-

DOUBLE RAINBOW!
Meme-tasticly good Internet omen.